Teaching and demonstration of clinical procedures in a realistic situation can be difficult to achieve without resorting to the use of a real patient. Instructors in clinical practice are faced with the problem of how to achieve effective simulation of clinical procedures to allow nursing students to practice repeatedly in an environment where a real patient will not be subject to any inconvenience, discomfort or have their safety compromised.
Plastic models of patients can be used to demonstrate clinical techniques. These have limited applicability since the patient dummy cannot provide any response or interaction.
One technique for teaching clinical procedures which allows simulation of actual clinical situations involves the instructor adopting the role of the patient. This role play facilitates interplay between the instructor, the patient character and the student.
Dissociation of the patient from the identity of the instructor can be achieved by the instructor wearing a disguise. Props and accessories such as wigs, glasses, false teeth and pieces of clothing can be used to create a character. A drawback of this approach is that the students can still see the instructor's face, so they cannot dissociate completely and the students may be discouraged from accepting the character as a patient and treating them accordingly. Plastic masks have been used to disguise the tutor, but hard plastic masks are not effective since there is no life or movement in the face and this presents a barrier to the student engaging with the character. This approach is also of limited applicability in clinical teaching since there are only a restricted number of clinical procedures that can be safely practiced on the tutor.